A variety of broad U.S. employment-related measures for veterans have been instituted since 1940, when the Selective Training and Service Act was authorized, guaranteeing re-employment rights to everyone who left a position to join the Armed Forces, the most well-known being the G.I. Bill of Rights. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it in 1944, and it has contributed more than any other program in history to the welfare of veterans, training, to some degree, 7.8 million individuals. Over the years many additional acts and bills have also been passed regarding veterans and training and employment, built around whichever war U.S. service people were engaged in at the time. In 1974, VETS was established, under the Employment Training Administration (ETA) umbrella, as an office to focus specifically on education and training for veterans, and ten years later it became an independent agency, with its own Assistant Secretary. Since then, it has been one of several government units, including the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Small Business Bureau, addressing and executing improvement of employment, training and other work-force issues and scenarios for veterans.

• e-VETS Resource Advisor, an interactive webpage that contains job search tools and tips, employment openings, and information on rights and benefits, along with many other options to research for personalized results.
• Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program, which provides employment assistance that specializes in outreach, supportive services, and training for homeless veterans, to guide them in making their way back into the workforce, and also provides funding for operators of the services.
• Veterans’ Workforce Investment Program, which provides competitive grants geared toward focused training, re-training and employment opportunities for veterans, to meet the needs of employers for qualified workers in high demand industries.
• The Recovery and Employment Assistance Lifelines (REALifelines) initiative, a joint project of the U.S. Department of Labor, the Bethesda Naval Medical Center, and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which provides personalized assistance to severely injured service members who cannot return to active duty, helping get them the proper counseling and training so they can effectively launch new careers in the private sector.
• USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act of 1994), which sees to it that veterans and members of the National Guard and Reserve Forces can serve on active duty without harm later to their employment or benefits status.
• Federal Veterans Preference Enforcement, which works to ensure veterans entitled preference over others for virtually all federal jobs.
• Vets Guide to Competitive and Discretionary Grants (PDF), which explains what grants are available, who’s eligible, and how to apply.
• Jobs for Veterans State Grants, which provides funds to support Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program specialists; Local Veteran’s Employment Representative Staff; Transition Assistance Program Employment Workshops; and emergency situations as they arise.

House Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity; Committee on Veterans’ Affairs